More Workers With Children Jobless: Study

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Long-term unemployment is increasing most rapidly in families with young children, a children's advocacy group said Wednesday.

Some 502,000 parents with children under age 18 had been unemployed for more than 26 weeks in October, up from 185,000 in October 2000, or a 171 percent increase, according to the Children's Defense Fund.

When broken down to long-term unemployed parents with children under age 6, the increase was even greater, from 71,000 in October 2000 to 235,000 two years later, or a 229 percent jump, the advocacy group said in a report.

By comparison, the long-term unemployment figures for all people age 15 and older showed an increase from 597,000 to roughly 1.58 million during the two-year period, reflecting a 164 percent rise.

The Fund said that to reach its conclusions it analyzed government employment survey data using the same information and methods used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Long-term unemployment has soared among parents with young children mostly because of layoffs and disappearing jobs, the report said.

Qualified jobless workers generally receive a maximum of 26 weeks of unemployment insurance from the states. In March, Congress created a 13-week extension in federal jobless benefits for workers who used up the maximum state-funded coverage.

Extended federal aid for the jobless runs out Dec. 28, and President Bush has said he would ask Congress to pass another extension and make it retroactive for more than 750,000 jobless workers.

"Instead of holiday greetings, hundreds of thousands of other struggling families will get the news that their unemployment benefits will expire," said Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund.

Roughly 780,000 new people will lose benefits on Dec. 28. One million jobless workers already have exhausted benefits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Citing various studies, the Children's Defense Fund said young children are sensitive to economic loss and are more likely to do poorly in school and eventually complete fewer years of schooling.